England’s need for speed exposed with weapons at Root’s disposal a concern | Ali Martin


England have won in Australia before without express bowlers, but on the surfaces witnessed so far, it is starting to look like the missing element

The history of English cricket is littered with moments in the field when, almost to the imagined sound of Herb Alpert tootling out Spanish Flea on his trumpet, the car has shipped many of its constituent parts and is careering downhill at a pace.

On the second day at the Adelaide Oval, one that was dominated by Shaun Marsh’s maiden Ashes hundred and capped off by Mitchell Starc’s pinpoint location of Mark Stoneman’s front pad before the rain, the latest such entry came moments from dinner amid a chorus of local derision.

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